


Complexity

by kethni



Category: Veep (TV)
Genre: F/M, Pre-Relationship, Season/Series 07, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-15
Updated: 2019-06-15
Packaged: 2020-05-12 13:11:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19229803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kethni/pseuds/kethni
Summary: ‘I was less sensitive than I should have been telling you of Andrew’s death. My timing was poor, I should have waited –’





	Complexity

**Author's Note:**

> With thanks to OneMoreDay for the suggestion.

Kent rubbed his neck as he fetched himself a coffee. He had been up for eighteen hours and was now too restless and fidgety to meditate and sleep.

He glanced askance as Selina shuffled across to him. There were dark bags under her eyes that had been covered up during the day. Now her face was bare, and she was dressed down in an overlong t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants.

He gestured an empty cup at her, and she nodded.

‘Yeah, I can’t work the fucking machine,’ she admitted.

‘You appear to be short a bagman.’

She snorted. ‘I sent him to get some sleep. He was driving me around the fucking bend.’

‘All that fawning must be tiring,’ Kent suggested.

‘Gets to be.’ She took the cup that he procured and added sweetener and cinnamon. She leaned back against the wall. ‘Where’s Ben?’

‘His medication knocks him out,’ Kent said.

She sniffed. ‘I’ve had a heart attack and I’m awake.’

‘He’s had seven,’ Kent said mildly. ‘He also has diabetes.’

She shuddered. ‘Jesus, how is he still walking around?’

The door to the side opened. Keith Quinn picked up a folder from the coffee table.

‘Forgot this,’ he said almost cheerfully. He avoided looking directly at Selina and ducked quickly out of the room.

‘I should turn that fucker over to the FBI,’ Selina said quietly.

Kent licked his lips. ‘I wanted to apologise.’

She stared at him. ‘What for?’

He played with his cup. ‘I was less sensitive than I should have been telling you of Andrew’s death. My timing was poor, I should have waited –’

‘No,’ she interrupted. She walked around to the couch. ‘You were right to tell me straight away. God, can you imagine if I’d learned it from a reporter?’

Kent came and sat next to her.

‘You thought it was the right call...’ She shrugged. ‘You didn’t expect me to give a shit. I don’t expect you to understand.’

Kent stiffened. Selina noticed and shook her head.

‘I didn’t mean it like that. It wasn’t some joke about you being a robot.’

Kent sipped his coffee. ‘I’m aware that it’s a very... complex dynamic that you and Andrew share.’

She sighed. ‘I bet you never got into a fucking mess because of someone you dated.’

He shrugged. ‘Well, I was arrested and questioned.’

‘What?’ Selina asked. ‘Oh, your girlfriend. Right.’ She brought her feet up onto the seat. Ten toes poked up underneath the hems of her sweatpants. ‘That was just bad fucking luck. It’s not like you murdered her.’

Kent tapped his thumbs together. ‘Thank you for not asking me.’

She snorted. ‘Like you could kill anyone. I could kill someone. Fuck. Apparently, I did. Had it done, anyway.’

Kent shook his head. ‘Intention is important. You didn’t intend for any harm to come to Andrew.’

‘Yeah, it’s the difference between life and the gas chamber,’ Selina snorted.

‘Washington D.C. abolished the death penalty in 1957,’ Kent said. ‘And before that they used the electric chair.’

Selina rolled her eyes. ‘Is that supposed to make me feel better?’

‘Well… You’re in no danger of execution,’ he said.

Selina turned around so she was side on to him and leaned back against the arm of the couch. ‘I have this thing here.’ She pressed her palm to her breasts. ‘I thought I was having another heart attack.’

‘Stress-induced cardiomyopathy,’ Kent said.

‘Yeah, Ben called in broken heart something… syndrome.’

He bit his lower lip. ‘With Julie it felt nightmarish, delusive. My interior compass, my sense of reality, was utterly distorted.’ He pushed his fingers through his hair.

Selina wrapped her hands around her cup. ‘You seemed fine,’ she said.

‘How would you know?’ he asked gently.

Gently enough that she took a breath and started to think about it.

‘That’s on you,’ she said. ‘Ben’s constantly fucking talking about his health, his private life, and God knows what else. You never say a word about that shit. The first I knew about your dead girlfriend was that cop showing checking your alibi.’

‘It wouldn’t be very professional to make a thing of my private life,’ Kent said. ‘Also, I don’t like you very much.’

Selina stared at him for a minute before she started to laugh. She returned his smile and lightly slapped his leg. ‘Asshole.’ She rubbed her eyes. ‘Jesus, imagine trying to be professional around here.’

Kent finished his coffee. ‘My relationship with my father was complicated,’ he said. ‘He was not averse to “creative accounting”, much in the same manner as Andrew. We moved three times before I was five as he sought to escape creditors.’

Selina winced. ‘Like, the bank or guys with baseball bats?’

‘Not the bank,’ Kent said.

‘My daddy sold my pony! Can you believe that?’ she asked. ‘Told me my mother sold him because I did badly in the cotillion.’

‘Good Lord,’ Kent said.

‘I know!’ She scrunched her toes against the couch cushion. She grew quiet. ‘Last time I saw Andrew I was so fucking angry.’

‘You had every reason to be,’ Kent said. ‘He looted the Meyer fund and he forged your name to do it.’

‘He was gonna cooperate with the FBI.’ Selina added. ‘By lying that I did it! How is that cooperation? Tell me that!’

Kent shrugged. ‘I’m surprised they’d consider working with a textbook psychopath.’

Selina snorted, ‘Says you, career staffer.’

Kent shook his head. ‘I’m not. I have had a rich and varied career. I was working in academia when President Hughes recruited me.’

Selina shifted a little closer. ‘You’ve only been in politics for eight years?’

He waggled his hand. ‘Not counting the time between my brief hiatus.’

‘God. No wonder you still sometimes tell me not to use gross shit against people,’ she said. ‘You’re just a baby. You probably still have like... a quarter of your soul left.’

He smiled. ‘Could be. You weren’t always a politician. You were a lawyer.’

She waved her hand. ‘Those people sell their souls to pass the bar. She cocked her head. ‘You were working at a college?’

‘Head of Mathematics,’ he said. ‘At MIT, specialising in statistics. In charge of 50 [faculty](https://math.mit.edu/directory/faculty/index.php), 60 postdocs instructors, and 25 visiting scholars and research affiliates.’

‘Get you,’ Selina said. ‘I never understood that stuff.’

Kent shrugged. ‘You have wider concerns.’ He stood up. ‘I’ll let you get your rest.’

Selina ran her fingers through her hair. ‘You miss her?’

‘Julie? Yes.’

She looked away. ‘I’ve hated Andrew longer than Catherine’s been alive so why do I feel like someone cut off my arm?’

‘You knew each other for a long time,’ Kent said. ‘There’s something to be said for knowing someone so well and for so long, whether you like them or not. Although Julie and I dated for some while, and might have committed to one another, we didn’t have the same depth of romantic experience as you and Andrew.’

Selina sighed. ‘Even when I divorced that fucker, I still had him under my skin like a tick.’

‘I wish there was something I could say,’ he said.

Selina wiped her eyes with her hands. ‘You said plenty.’ She shook her head. ‘Not, you know, in a shitty way.’

Kent took a handkerchief from his pocket and held it out to her. It was cotton, not silk, but scrupulously clean and pressed.

‘Remember that time I hit you in the eye with a lipstick?’ she asked drying her eyes.

‘Vividly,’ he said dryly.

Selina looked up at him. ‘Sorry. If it helps it was genuinely an accident.’

‘I know. Gary would _never_ countenance wasting a perfectly good lipstick.’

Selina sniggered. ‘I can barely tell them apart. Don’t tell him. He’d be crushed.’

‘I won’t.’

Selina sat up. ‘He attacked Andrew once.’

‘Gary did?’

Selina nodded. ‘Nearly fucking choked him to death. I tell you, don’t underestimate little milquetoast men. The fuckers can be vicious.’

Kent tucked his hands in his pockets. ‘I’ll watch my back.’

Selina watched him walked to the door. ‘Thanks,’ she said.

Kent looked back. ‘Ma’am?’

She shrugged. ‘Just… you know.’

He was quiet for a moment. ‘Good night, Ma’am.’

‘Good night, Kent.’

The End


End file.
